Social, Biological And Environmental Factors Of Addiction

Our genes are responsible for our hair color, health and behavioral characteristics. Passed on by our parents, these genes may also be responsible for addiction. Parents can pass on genetic traits that make their children predisposed to addiction.

Addictions are a diverse set of common and complex diseases that are to some extent tied together by shared genetic and environmental factors. Addiction includes alcohol use disorders, cannabis and cocaine use disorders, nicotine dependence, as well as non-substance–related behaviors. Both genetic and environmental variables contribute to the use and abuse of addictive substances, which may eventually lead to addiction.

Approximately 247 million drug users worldwide, and nearly 21 million Americans ages 12 and older had a substance abuse problem. Addiction has three causes social, biological and psychological. Social is caused by your surroundings, biological is genetics and physical changes, and psychological is your emotions and attitude. Addiction is caused by three factors social, biological and psychological. The reasons why are peer pressure and your environment which is social. Loneliness and other emotions also your attitude which is psychological. Lastly, tolerance and withdrawal which is biological.

According to the American Psychological Association, which states that about half of a person’s tendency toward drug addiction can be blamed on genetic factors. The genes might not make the person experiment with drugs, but when the person does begin to dabble, the use could quickly spin out of control due to these underlying genetic factors. The home in which a person grows up has a great deal of influence over drug use and abuse. A study in the Archives of General Psychiatry bears out this theory quite well, as researchers looked at drug and alcohol use in genetic twins who had been raised in different homes. Those who grew up in homes that were disrupted by divorce and mental illness, and those who grew up in homes where drugs and alcohol were at play, were more likely to become abusers when they grew up. It’s possible that living in homes like this causes such intense stress that using drugs seems like a reasonable solution, but it’s also possible that growing up in a home like this normalizes drug abuse. As the child grows and sees parents abusing substances, that child learns to also abuse substances. The effects of genetics and environment can often be hard to separate, and many statistics cited in the media fail to take this into account. Children of substance use parents are likely to inherit many of the genes that would make them predisposed to

Have you ever dealt with the effects of drug addict? A drug is a person who is addicted to drugs or alcohol, which has a psychological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body. The effects of drug use can vary depending on the person. According to “Causes and types of narcotic addiction: A Psychosocial View” in the Psychiatric Quarterly it says, “The causes of drugs stem from the manner of which you were introduced to it whether it be by abnormal curiosity, chance encounters with addicts and narcotic peddlers, or prolonged illness” (Ausubel). The effects of drugs can be have different effects on everyone differently depending if its for pleasure or for relieving pain Most of the effects of drugs occur in the brain, where it increases the level of dopamine at a specific site possibly giving the addict the pleasure they were feigning for (Robbins). As a child I didn’t know much about drugs except for what your parents and teachers at school tell you which is, “Just Say No.”

Genetics may make up 50% of the risk for alcohol and drug dependence, but not all people who use alcohol and drugs will develop an addiction. Ultimately, addiction is influenced by many factors, including a person’s environment, parents, expectancies of what drinking or using drugs will do, and one’s individual response to drugs and alcohol. While a family history of alcohol or drug dependency is known to contribute significantly to the risk of a child developing the same condition, genes are not the sole determinant of alcoholism or drug dependence. Lots of people have come from addicted families but managed to overcome their family history and live happy lives. Teens may think that they don 't have the choice to stop but they do. Which is why if teens are drug tested earlier in life the can be prevented from developing an addiction.

It involves various factors, theories, and health risks, all of which are the foundations of personal philosophies of how addiction works. From a psychological perspective, numerous theories and explanations that deal with addiction exist. According to Burns (1997) as cited in Hanson, Venturewlli, and Fleckenstein (2009), “the explanations can include escape from reality, boredom, inability to cope with anxiety, destructive self-indulgence, to the point of constantly desiring intoxicants, blind compliance with drug-abusing peers, self-destructiveness, and conscious and unconscious ignorance regarding the harmful effects” (p. 57). Substance use disorders, such as alcohol, have indeed been linked to genetic and other biological components; however, this link was nourished and shaped by psychological, cultural, and social comments. For a theory to be truly effective, it must provide more, be more, than a mere acknowledgement a genetic predisposition. Rather, it should encompass their culture and lifestyles, immediate environmental influences, community and social

The topic for my milestone three project is nature versus nurture what is the source for a person becoming an addict? Nature versus nurture is a long standing debate amongst many individual’s genes and environment. In my milestone I would like to focus on what could be the trigger for an individual to become an addict. Alcoholism affects not only the individual but also those around them an example the spouse, family members and children. Becoming addicted to alcohol has the ability to effect people for years and can influence children and adults to follow the same path.

They assume addicts lack moral principles or self-discipline and that they can quit by simply deciding to. The reality is, people who have struggled with substance abuse have often found it extremely difficult to quit due to the physical and/or mental addiction. Drug have the ability to change the brain patterns and cause health complications, making things harder in the long-term and may determine life or death. Fortunately, because of more research, there are more ways to back out of an addiction and seek help through an enduring and extensive treatment. Factors that affect the likelihood and speed of developing an addiction are environmental and individual factors, including genetics and

When it comes to preventing addiction, there are factors like environments and influences to consider. As children get older and get closer to their teen years, they are shown drugs from their peers more often and are influenced from going to social events (Palmer et al., 6). Environments have a significant amount of importance when preventing addiction. There are always influences around and they affect how a person thinks and acts. “‘Peer influence’ is often more a matter of the attraction of a particular social group for the teenager than it is a matter of pressure from anyone specifically to drink, smoke, or use drugs”(Room 937). “Exposure to portrayals of alcohol in film, television, and commercials has also been linked to adolescents’

According to Walsh (2012), experimentation with alcohol and drugs is the most prominent risk to becoming a substance abuser. There are neurologists and mental health professions that agree some people are more susceptible than other people to becoming addicted to substances because of genetic, biological, or environmental differences. Some of these risk factors include, but are not limited to: family history of substance abuse, mental disorders, childhood trauma, and early experimentation with substances. Even someone who does not have these risk factors but experiments with substances can still become addicted.

Of course one of the major factors that can influence substance abuse is the people that one surrounds him/herself with. If someone is associated with people that do not partake in drugs or alcohol they are more likely to not participate in it. On the other hand it’s equally true that if the majority of people someone is around use drugs or consume alcohol, then he/she is more likely to. So in order to maximize a person’s chances of not abusing drugs and alcohol, they should eliminate all negative influences in their life if possible. The less temptation a person surrounds themselves with, the less likely they will abuse drugs or alcohol. Upon learning this information hopefully young adults will be able to make smarter decisions of who they associate with. Another factor that can have an effect on substance abuse is the neurological configuration of the individual. According to previous research, prefrontal and subcortical brain volumes could possibly relate to risk for development of substance abuse (Weiland, et al., 2014). So a study was performed by multiple individuals to test this. “We hypothesized that frontal regions would be smaller in young adults with early substance use and related problems, compared with a control group without early use/problems” (Weiland, et al., 2014). The findings of the study actually suggested that smaller frontal

The mind is beautiful, full of mystery and it leaves us full of questions for deliberation. Although scientists have come a long way, they are far from fully understanding our psyche. We live in a world where nature versus nurture plays a fundamental and crucial role in our predispositions, and by my definition, the lack of free will; despite the view of some who oppose whilst proposing other points of view.

The cause of substance abuse is not known but may include genetic disposition, co-occurring situations, and environmental conditions. Drug use and experimentation are common in pre-teenagers and teenagers; however, just a small percentage of them will misuse drugs. Parents that abuse drugs put their children at risk, but it is possible for the child to grow up and not abuse drugs. It is also possible for people who have never come in contact with a drug user to use drugs. Genetics alone is not the cause of substance abuse. Substance abuse often occurs with other issues like mental illnesses. Mental illness itself is not the cause of drug addiction, but the medication used to treat the disease may become addictive. For example,

Risk factor like behavior patterns, peer influences, and genetics can increase a person’s likelihood of becoming addicted to drugs, whereas, protective factors have the opposite effect by helping to reduce the individual’s risk factors. It’s important to realize that not every individual will respond the same way to treatment measures because what works for one individual may not work the same way for another. The more risk factors an individual is exposed will increase their likelihood of becoming addicted to drugs. Also, the timing of when protective factors are in place are crucial because different protective factors work better at different stages for younger adolescents, teenagers, young adults, and adults. For teenagers, protective factors such as having a strong parental influence, parental monitoring, community involvement programs, and appropriate peer relationships can reduce a teen’s risk factor.